Just delicious recipes

A simple dessert that people love! You can use anything you want in place of the toffee: sprinkles, nuts, cookie crumbs, or whatever! This is also really good with dark chocolate.

Frozen Banana Bites

makes 48 servingsIngredients:

1 cup peanut butter

4 bananas, sliced into 1-inch rounds

8 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate

1 tablespoon shortening

1/3 cup toffee baking bits

Instructions:

Cover a baking sheet with waxed paper.

Spoon a thin layer of peanut butter on top of each banana slice. Insert a toothpick through the peanut butter layer into the banana. Place banana bites onto the prepared baking sheet; freeze for 30 minutes to overnight.

Melt chocolate and shortening in the top of a double boiler over simmering water, stirring frequently and scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula to avoid scorching.

Cover another baking sheet with waxed paper.

Remove 2 to 4 banana bites from the freezer at a time; coat each bite with chocolate mixture. Place coated banana bites on the second baking sheet; sprinkle each with toffee bits. Repeat until all the bites are coated. Return banana bites to freezer until set, at least 1 hour. Allow bites to sit in room temperature for about 15 minutes before serving.

This recipe can be used for inexpensive chicken pieces or to grill a whole chicken. The Italian salad dressing gives the dish some zing!

Marinated Grilled Chickenmakes 4 servingsIngredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 (16 ounce) bottle Italian-style salad dressing

1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper

salt to taste

Instructions:

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Place in a shallow glass bowl and pour 1/2 bottle of salad dressing over it. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Lightly oil grill and preheat to medium high.

Remove chicken breasts from marinade. Season with lemon pepper and salt to taste. Grill over medium high heat for 10 to 15 minutes on each side, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

Cook pasta in salted water till it’s al dente. I make the sauce while the water is coming to a boil because the sauce is very quick.

Saute onions in butter and olive oil on medium high heat until tender. Add shrimp and scallops and saute until shrimp just starts to turn pink and is almost done, but not quite. Overcooking the shrimp and scallops makes them very tough. Also the giant scallops take a long time to cook so I cut them in half to match the cook time of the shrimp if I can’t find smaller ones.

Add lemon zest, lemon juice, white wine, salt and pepper and cook for a few more minutes till bubbly and seafood is done.

Trader Joe’s market has their frozen seafood blend of peeled raw shrimp, scallops, and calamari that I normally use. If you can find a combo bag of shellfish like this at your local market it is both super delicious and easy, just defrost and pour in.

A wonderful Spritz cookie with cinnamon in it. These freeze very well. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out exactly as I hoped. I will definitely be making more of these! It is definitely my “go to” spritz recipe.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and egg yolk; beat until light and fluffy. Stir in the vanilla and orange zest. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Fill a cookie press or pastry bag with dough, and form cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the cookies are golden brown on the peaks and on the bottoms. Remove from cookie sheets at once to cool on wire racks.

These muffins are a tasty stand-in. Moist and tender, studded with grated carrots and lightly spiced with ginger and cinnamon, they hold a tasty surprise within: a melting pool of sweetened cream cheese filling.

Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

Filling:

one 8-ounce package cream cheese or Neufchâtel cheese

1/4 cup granulated sugar

a few drops of Fiori di Sicilia flavor, optional but very tasty

Muffins:

2 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup grated carrots, lightly packed; about 2 medium-large carrots

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-well muffin pan. Or line the pan with paper muffin cups, and grease the cups.

2) To make the filling: Place the cream cheese in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat on low power for 40 seconds. Stir in the sugar and flavor. Set aside.

3) To make the muffin batter: In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

4) In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, and oil.

5) Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

6) Fold in the grated carrots, stirring to combine.

7) Drop about 2 tablespoons of the batter (a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here) into each muffin cup, spreading it to cover the bottom.

8) Dollop on a heaping tablespoon of filling; a level tablespoon cookie scoop works well here.

9) Cover with enough batter to fill the muffin cups quite full. The batter will come to within about 1/4″ to 3/8″ of the top of each muffin cup. But don’t try to use all the batter; unless you have particularly deep cups, you’ll have abut 1/3 cup batter left over. Bake it in a separate custard cup, if desired.

10) Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted into the cake part of one (not into the cream cheese filling) comes out clean, about 20 minutes. The tops of the muffins will feel firm to the touch.

11) Remove the muffins from the oven, and as soon as you’re able to handle them, transfer them to a rack. If you serve the muffins warm, the filling will be molten. If you wait for them to cool, it’ll firm up.

To prepare crust: Combine gingersnaps and raisins in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add oil and pulse until blended. Press evenly into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan.

Bake the crust until set, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To prepare filling: Combine pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a large bowl and mix well. Add ice cream and stir until blended. Spoon the mixture into the cooled pie crust. Freeze until firm, at least 2 hours. Let the pie soften slightly in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

The original recipe has four ingredients: 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. People have revised it by adding vanilla or salt, less sugar, different kinds of sugar, chocolate chips, craisins and fresh peanuts. They’ve changed the cooking time, the size of the cookie and the oven temperature. As much as I hate to mess with simplicity, I did make some adjustments over the years based on my own experiments. Here’s my latest version.

Sensational Peanut Butter Cookies

18 Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter (see note)

3/4 cup natural cane sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

additional sugar for rolling

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees°F.

Mix all the ingredients up in a bowl. Roll walnut-sized pieces into balls and roll balls in the additional sugar. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten slightly with a fork in a crisscross pattern. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool before removing from baking sheet.

Note: Peanut butter comes in all kinds of configurations and the kind you choose will influence your outcome. Some peanut butters are very sweet, some have been hydrogenated, some have a whole lot more in them than peanuts! Then there is the chunky versus smooth debate. I used a natural chunky version (Safeway brand) for this recipe that wasn’t too sweet although it did have added cane sugar in the ingredient list.

Combine brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and rolled oats. Rub in the butter using your hands or a pastry blender to form a crumbly mixture. Press 2 cups of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the jam to within 1/4 inch of the edge. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the top, and lightly press it into the jam.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool before cutting into bars.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter mixture a third at a time, alternating with half the milk and half the lemon juice after each of the first 2 additions of flour. Beat until just combined.

Fill the prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes, until springy to the touch. Tip the cupcakes in their tins to help them cool. Let cool completely before frosting. If you like sprinkle with colored sugar. Makes 2 dozen.Fresh Raspberry Frosting

1 cup fresh raspberries (or thawed from frozen)

1 cup butter, at room temperature

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

In the bowl of a food processor, puree the raspberries until smooth. If you like, press the mixture through a sieve to get rid of the seeds.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and half the sugar until smooth. Add the raspberry puree, then more sugar until you have a fluffy, spreadable consistency. Add a splash of water, too (a tablespoon or two) if it needs it.

In Med. bowl mix, cookie mixPudding MixBrn Sugar,&Melted Butter, together.Add; 1 Tsp vanilla, and 1 egg, blend with a spoon.When dough begins to come together, Use your hands to Knead the dough then form into a ball.